Maj. Gen. Cheryl Pearce of Australia has been the force commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus since 2018. The authors argue that powerful Western nations need to let the UN Secretariat choose the leaders of peacekeeping posts rather than exert their own preferences. LOEY FELIPE/UN PHOTO
José Singer Weisinger, the special envoy of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations, in the Security Council, Sept. 18, 2019, with members of his delegation. His country assumes the presidency in April, after a tumultuous month in which the Council suddenly switched to privately held meetings online amid the coronavirus pandemic. ARIANA LINDQUIST/UN PHOTO
The authors, Samea Shanori, left, and Fiona Shukri, at a pomegranate festival in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. They argue that participation of women in the US-Taliban peace deal will only hurt them without their “methodical, sustained and substantive engagement.”
Zhang Jun, China’s envoy to the United Nations, in the Security Council, Sept. 17, 2019. Zhang has been in the post for less than a year and now leads the Council as president in March, just as the world reels from the coronavirus outbreak. ARIANA LINDQUIST/UN PHOTO
Rosemary DiCarlo, the highest-ranking US official at the UN, is the first person to lead the newly created Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs. Being the first woman in the post, she said, is a “heavy burden,” as she acts as a model for aspiring men and women at the organization. JOE PENNEY
A UN peacekeeper at a memorial in Khiam, in south Lebanon, where four UN soldiers were killed by Israeli bombers, using American-made weapons, during the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. A new US-based project will gather in one place global research on successful peace-building work.
An ambitious plan to guide the new Sudanese government’s transition to democracy has been presented by a Darfuri women’s rights group to Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who is also brand-new to office. Kindergarteners, above, performing in El Fasher, North Darfur, organized by the UN’s peacekeeping mission. MOHAMAD ALMAHADY/UNAMID
President Trump speaking this year at the National Association of Realtors. Ousting him through impeachment would be the first step in restoring America’s standing internationally, the author argues. CREATIVE COMMONS
In early 1974, fresh out of journalism school, I walked into the offices of the newly created Federal Energy Office in Washington and asked for a job.
Ambassador Jerry Matthews Matjila of South Africa speaking to reporters outside the UN Security Council, Oct. 9, 2019. As president of the Council for the month, he is taking its members on a trip to Ethiopia and South Sudan. STEPHANIE FILLION
Secretary-General António Guterres, right, greets Mary Robinson, chair of The Elders and a former high commissioner for human rights, before a Security Council meeting on preventing conflict. Ban Ki-moon, a former UN secretary-general and deputy chair of The Elders, is in the center, June 12, 2019. The UN marks the 75th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter in 2020 with a world leaders conference. LOEY FELIPE/UN PHOTO
